Pope: priests should blog, tweet the gospel too

New media isn't just a way for kids these days to post videos of cats—it …

Priests blogging! Cardinals on Facebook! Dogs and cats living together! No, it's not the mass hysteria out of an 80s sci-fi movie: Pope Benedict XVI urged priests over the weekend to use as many tools as possible to communicate with people, which includes the Internet and—yes—blogging. The Pope, who has been a bit of an Internet cudmudgeon, acknowledged that "the larger digital world represents a great resource for humanity" and said priests should take advantage of the tool before they become outdated.

The Pope's speech was posted in advance of the World Day of Communications set to take place in May, and it's clear that this year, the Pope's message is all about being active online. He emphasized that it's not enough to merely be present on the Web—"Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis."

Priests should also make sure they're getting on board early, becoming familiar with these tools while still in seminary. The Pope noted that the Internet isn't just an artifact of the past in digital form, but rather a present and engaging medium. Still, he warned that priests shouldn't get carried away—their main focus should remain on religion. "Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart," the Pope wrote.

Pope Benedict has not always been the most Internet-savvy cleric himself, despite his efforts in recent years to ensure that the online world is part of the Vatican's focus. In March of 2009, he was embarrassed by his decision to lift an excommunication of a controversial bishop who made a name for himself by minimizing the Holocaust—a view that was easily Google-able, but one that passed under His Holiness' radar nonetheless. "I have been told that consulting the information available on the Internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on," Benedict wrote in a letter following the incident. "I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news."

As noted by the Associated Press, there are already a number of priests active online, including the archbishop of Naples Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe and the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony. Both of these have their own Facebook profiles, though a quick search indicates that they're not yet on Twitter (c'mon guys!). But with the Vatican pushing its own YouTube channel and even an iPhone app that lets users read announcements and view videos, it's clear that the Vatican is all about spreading the gospel online.